Faster Than Prayers
by RoadWild
Summary: Selected for a suicide run, the crew of the Nightwing has to stand together to make it through rebel space. With pirates at their heels and a wall of cruisers up ahead Captain Crenshaw will have to pull out all stops to get his crew through the mission.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: Well, I'm not sure what happened to Last Wind but here's a new one. For a game called FTL: Faster Than Light, a game which I highly recommend to everyone who loves RTS and losing every time. Seriously. I've played 170 times and won exactly once. Endgame boss needs nerf

Xanzibar: Federation Controlled

The last thing on Glenn Crenshaw's mind right now was his newest orders. Currently all he was focused on getting as drunk as possible in what little time he had before he had to call his crew together. He slumped in his barstool, and while downing another Federation approved "Species Friendly Ethanol"© he complained to the barkeep.

"I literally step off my damn ship and what do those fucking assholes do? They put me on a goddamn suicide run straight through the goddamn rebel territories while carrying valuable supplies! They want me dead I say! Dead!"

At the mention of the rebellion the barkeep looked around nervously. Even within Federation territory rebel spies were not unheard of, and definitely any information of this sort would be highly valued. Affirming that nobody was eavesdropping on their conversation the barkeep tapped the clearly distraught commander in front of him and said "Don't you have to inform your crew?"

At that Crenshaw moaned and took another swig of his drink. He knew he shouldn't pilot while buzzed but who gave a shit? He was about to fly into literally the most dangerous area for any federation cruiser and he was going to get ripped apart faster than an Engi on a Mantis homeworld. He paid his tab, and hoped he still had enough scrap to buy a few augments. While walking towards the market, his communicator blinked. Wincing at the loud sound, Crenshaw brought his arm up and saw it was communique from his ship. He tapped it, and answered "Captain Crenshaw of the Nightwing speaking, is there some service you require?"

Immediately a cheeky and friendly voice called back, saying "Well I could do with maybe a few nice looking Mantis and a locked door, but I doubt you can do anything for that." The female voice then turned darker, shrieking "Have you fucking seen the new orders?!"

Crenshaw rubbed his eyes and replied "Yea-yea. Listen Emma, I don't like this any more than you do. It's a suicide run and it's probably punishment for our latest fuckup. Don't tell me you didn't expect something like this"

There was a brief pause while the now named Emma mulled over the recent events, and finally said "Look, we didn't know that bowing in front of the Core Mother of Engi hiveworld Beta X-9 would be a dire insult, and that our Mantis prisoner would escape and nearly kill the crown prince. We're lucky we even got out-we seriously have to thank Darcy for that save. Look I know our track record isn't looking good lately but we're the damn Nightwing crew! Most prestigious and long lasting, and not to mention the best looking!"

Crenshaw cracked his neck, trying to think of a reply. Finally, he settled on "The only reason we're famous for being the longest lasting crew is because every other idiot in my launch group recognized the Stealth Cruiser line was literally suicide and could afford another ship. It's only because of the lucky upgrade that we even lasted this long, and we have to power off our medbay just to fully utilize it. And it doesn't matter if we didn't know. We seriously damaged Federation relations in that region of space, and you can bet your ass that we aren't getting that kind of job again. I'm at the markets, gather the crew and meet me here."

He hung up, and finished his walk to the market. He was busy checking an ad for a new line of laser pistolsl when a cough interrupted him. When he turned, his crew was waiting behind him. Emma stood at the front, proudly saluting him. Next to her Darcy, the crew's Engi and resident fix-it man, awkwardly saluted as well. Maybe it was because his Engi physiology wasn't well adapted to Xanzibar's climate, or because their relationship was still filled with awkwardness. Behind them stood two tall figures. One of the figures chittered nervously, and looked around at the crowd. Already he was attracting strange looks as people realised he wasn't an Engi. The Lanius was a new member of the Federation, and contact was established after several convoys into the abandoned sectors were attacked. They agreed to a ceasefire, and later requested to join. He still couldn't speak common, so the crew just nicknamed him 'Booster', because he was like hell in the engine room. The next one grew even more nervous looks. The Mantis was an edge species, sometimes allying with the Rebels, sometimes allying with the Federation. What wasn't unsure was that the Mantis was unmatched in hand-to-hand combat, their naturally evolved stingers and incredible strength ripping this spot from the Rockmen. Randy Aelion Herbert was raised on an Engi homeworld, and grew up with dirty looks from every side he took. This didn't stop him from becoming a nice guy, but he constantly apologized every time news of a Mantis raid flashed. The crowd didn't know this, and even with his Federation armband the guards clutched their weapons closer as they eyed him.

Crenshaw let out a loose chuckle and joked "Y'know, if we had a Slug, a Zoltan and a Rockman then we could start our own Federation!"

Emma had a playful scowl on her face and scolded "We get one bad mission and you're already thinking of sedition. C'mon, let's grab something to eat. I know Booster is starving, right Booster?"

The Lanius turned from where he was inspecting a pile of salvage, and made a noise of surprise.

Crenshaw fidgeted. He couldn't help but do that because most Rock dining places didn't have any padding on their seats-and he swore there was an dent on his seat. Around the table, the rest of the crew sat either perusing the menu or looking around. Emma of course was staring at what appeared to be a religious symbol above the doorway while Randy lazily swiped through his phone, casually ignoring the hostile looks from other patrons. Crenshaw cleared his throat, and said through the din "I'm not sure how we'll survive this mission. We're going straight through rebel space while holding valuable cargo. If we aren't attacked the moment we get out into rebel controlled space then I'll be damn surprised."

Randy slowly sharpened the blades protruding from his wrists, a reminder that evolution made his species into alpha predators even before they became conscious, with a whetstone, and asked "I don't see what the problem is. We go in, we kill the rebels, and we come out heroes."

Across the table Darcy let out an unamused whirl, and quietly intoned "Commander is correct. Even under the best circumstances this would be considered a fool's mission. A heavily armed and experienced envoy filled with Dreadnoughts would have difficulty navigating through rebel space. I recommend skipping."

Emma let out a choked laugh, and said "Seriously? We can't just bail out on the federation just because we got a shitty lil' job! It'll be fine. Just overclock our cloaking system and pray like hell they don't see us. If we're lucky we'll make it through without firing a single lazer."

Crenshaw fiddled with his blaster. It was generally poor etiquette to openly carry but given his captain status and the fact that he was regularly in gunfights (voluntarily or not) he couldn't go without it. Finally, he rested his hands on the table and said "Enough. After this we're making a stop at the market for some augments, and stocking up on supplies. I'm not happy, you're not happy, but we all will be when we get paid. Got it?"

There was groans all arounds, and even complaints about spending all they had on augments. But they didn't resist. They were a good crew like that.

Outside, Crenshaw motioned his crew around. "Booster, Darcy, I want you to follow me to take a look at the augments. Anything that'll be good for deep space is a must. Emma, Randy, grab as much food as we can afford. If it's too much then we can just trade it off."

The augments store was quiet, filled only by the hum of Engi nanobots. When Crenshaw looked around, he saw that asides for a catalogue of possible augments the store was almost bare. Behind the counter, an old Mantis sat fanning herself "Greetings, welcome to The Augment Shop, number one retailer of every augment everywhere. How may I help you?"

Crenshaw gave her a onceover, and replied "Just looking, we're going to make a long trip soon."

The opening pages of the catalogue was almost completely useless. Filled with specializations that would serve no use other than enjoyment, Crenshaw huffed and looked past it. Darcy made a small noise when he saw the Engi nanobot manufacturing plant but cringed away when he saw the price. 300 scrap. Crenshaw flipped to the back where the military augments were, and grinned when he saw the wide selection.

Behind him, Darcy muttered his own thoughts. "Advanced FTL Navigator absolutely useless. Weapons Pre-igniter? Expensive but helpful. Stealth weapons? Why don't we have that already?"

All of the combat augments were useful in some way or another but there was only so much scrap in the world. Slowly mulling over each choice, Crenshaw turned to Darcy and asked "Say we run into the flagship. What would keep us alive?"

Darcy went stiff, before saying "Activating Sarcasm matrix: A prayer and some bubblegum"

Crenshaw made a noise of disgust, and turned to Booster, who was looking curiously at a selection of multi-species condoms. _Nope._ He placed the catalogue on the table and pointed at 3 augments which seemed the most useful. The mantis chittered "Do you only want these three? At four, we throw in a free drone" How the mantis managed to sound like she was giving a war declaration at the same time Crenshaw didn't know, but was smart enough not to question it. He turned to Darcy, who only shrugged. "Sure. If we're going to get a drone anyways then I'll take a drone subsystem with the system repair drone."

After telling the mantis his ship's bay number he grabbed Booster and Darcy and led them out of the shop. When they reached the fountain, a shout drew their attention. Emma and Randy waved from across the plaza, gesturing wildly. After pronounced pointing the message soon cleared. _We're finished! And we have no money!_ Crenshaw groaned, and clutched at his wallet. With the rest of the money going to fuel and missiles, they'll be running into deep rebel space with no other upgrades to their ship.

Later that day a ship blasted off into a direction seldom travelled by others. Heading deep towards rebel space the crew of the Nightwing uttered one final prayer before their ship slid into the hyperlanes. About to reach their first destination, their Captain let out a loose tear and muttered " _We are so screwed"_


	2. Chapter 2

AN: Is this going to get third chapter!?

Moments before the Nightwing made its first jump, Captain Crenshaw muttered " _We are so screwed_ "

As expected, the first thing the crew of the Nightwing saw when they decelerated from hyperspace was the telltale markings of a Mantis cruiser. And, a message from its captain.

A scarred and mutilated Mantis appeared on the command deck, screeching "You! Federation Scum! Surrender all your cargo and scrap and maybe we'll let you live!"

Crenshaw scratched his head, and quietly asked "Is there any chance you'll let us go?"

There was a horrible screech, and the quiet notification that the enemy was powering their weapons. Crenshaw only shook his head and hoped that they didn't have a teleport system.

Moments after, his console alerted him announcing "Intruders on board!"

Dreading the possibility that the intruders may attack the Oxygen system, Crenshaw called out on the crew radios, ordering "Emma! I want you to man our doors and make sure that they can't get through, okay? I'm going to vent all oxygen from the ship except for the rooms we're in, so try not to leave any doors open okay?"

There was no response other than a brief crackling over the radio. Fear seized his heart at the thought of the multitude of bio-bombs the Mantis could use against his crew, but calmed when he heard Randy call back.

"Passed Emma on my way there! Apparently the fuckers are trying to get to our oxygen. Should I try and help out?"

Crenshaw flattened his hands against the piloting console as he desperately tried to think of a solution. After pausing to dodge a volley of lazers and a missile that felt like pure evil, he finally gave back a response. "No! Get back to weapons and give us a bead on this guy. I'm going to vent oxygen from every room except the ones we're in. Emma's keeping the doors together but I don't know how long that'll last!"

After a short crackle finally Randy replied "Acknowledged"

 _Alright. Here's to hoping I don't swing into a missile._

Contrary to what the fucking corpsmen or dirt crawlers said flying a ship wasn't as easy as it was shown in the sim-vids. Every moment you have to watch for a volley of whatever the other ship is packing and keeping note of how your weapons are charged so you can swing into a optimal position. It was stressful, unforgiving and was the number one cause of pilot death once out of the academy.

Crenshaw dared to glance at his monitor. What he saw filled his heart with fear. The intruders were now making good headway in breaking down the door close to Emma. His hands hovered over the executive command buttons, before steeling himself and tapped it twice. He immediately manually shut the rooms his crew were in, and deliberately closed the doors on the 2 intruders. Slowly, oxygen left the ship and muffled lazer shots and explosions grew silent outside his door. He checked Emma, and was relieved that she was perfectly fine. After oxygen left the open spaces the banging on Emma's door became more and more feeble. When they finally stopped and the enemy life-form alarm shut off he let out a sigh of relief and closed all doors. Slowly oxygen returned to the ship and returned outside sound to his command deck.

The radio crackled once again, before Darcy's nervous rumble advised "Captain? I believe we could maximize our damage if we were to target the enemy's right wing. It has already been damaged courtesy to the previously fired missiles and the halberd beam should completely cut off the wnig."

Crenshaw quickly ordered through the comms to immediately pull power from the engines, and to dump it all into the weapons system. Almost immediately his comm buzzed with indignation.

"Captain! Dumping all the power into the weapons will almost certainly damage the subsystem! Not to mention pulling power from our engines is a horrible idea!"

 _Well, Emma always had something to say_

Randy's chittering immediately followed, saying "Captain I heard what Darcy said but if we proceed with his plan it's almost guaranteed we'll be sitting ducks while we try to repair the reactor"

Crenshaw finally pressed his comms and tried to maintain order. "Listen, if we can take these bastards out first then we can deal with the fallout later. Emma, can you get to the Sensors? I want to see what they're repairing"

There was grumbling on the comms, but eventually his command station lit up with a holographic of the enemy ship. The enemy ship was in a bad shape. Which is not to say it was pristine before, but after the volleys of lazers and hull-beams the pirate ship had taken quite the beating. He could see the captain of the pirates frantically directing crewmen around, seemingly overwhelmed with the multiple alerts on his command console. Crenshaw considered offering surrender, before deciding otherwise. _They fired on us first_

When the halberd beam tore the pirate ship in two Crenshaw let out an appreciative grumble, before turning his attention back to the comms. "They're dead. Suggestions?"

Almost unanimously there was a collective cry of "Loot!" Even Booster let out a weird crumpling noise, which Crenshaw's primitive translator worked together to say "Enthusiastic"

When they shifted through the debris, the joyful mood dissipated. There was very little salvage from the wreck, and the only thing of note they found was a weird crystalline pod which refused to open no matter what they did. Randy offered to try and slice into it but Crenshaw warned against it, in fear of someone damaging it. Either way, the fight was for very little.

Emma angrily banged her hand on the pod, yelling "Dammit! After all that we seriously only get dead weight? Let's jettison this piece of shit and move on"

Darcy raised his filaments in some sort of placating motion, before intoning "Doing such an action would make this battle truly null and void. I recommend trying to find a buyer"

Booster for some reason cradled the strange pod and held it close to his chest.

Crenshaw motioned for everyone to move out of the cargo-bay and to return to their stations. He raised his voice and said "Alright, alright. It was a shitty haul, but whatever. Maybe we can find out what it is and then sell it. But for now, we need to move. I'm sure the Rebel fleet is closing in on us."

The rest of his crew moved on, all except for Booster. Crenshaw gave the room's oxygen levels a nervous look and then moved closer to him. He lowered his voice and said "Booster, you okay?"

Booster looked up and made a sound which to him sounded like two ships ramming into each other, but his translater chugged out "I'm happy! Ancient!"

Crenshaw put a hand on Booster's shoulder and said "Listen, I know you like this but we're about to jump okay? We need our engine man"

Booster made a noise which was translated as "Resignation" and reluctantly moved away from the pod. Crenshaw patted him on the back and moved towards his flight console.

He strapped into his seat and announced over the comms "Alright! We have two options here. Number one is a binary system which means fire. We could vent all oxygen and move on, but I know you guys hate that. Now option two, however, I'm detecting a distress signal and we know how the captain's motto goes"

The rest of the crew chimed in "We don't leave each other to starve in space"

Pleased, Crenshaw finished "Well then I hope you guys know where we're going"

The FTL drive finished warmup, and the Nightwing flitted off into space.

Hundreds of systems away, deep in the heart of rebel territory, a terrified assistant shakily presented a report to his superior. The man, his face marred by high-tech implants making him look unhuman, slowly put down his mug and accepted it. The assistant squeaked and immediately disappeared, the super blast door nicking his heels as he ran out. The room was silent, save for the sound of flipping papers. Eventually, the man finished the report and silently contemplated its contents. There were multiple avenues of attack here, and he needed to consider them all. Finally, an accord was reached. A spindly hand reached for the comms, and after carefully inputting his credentials and desired recipient, he finally said "All lanes lockdown. Keep core open. Further instructions are pending."


End file.
